On the back of 58 Gold medals in the 2004 games, Commonwealth giants Australia are hoping to drive home their supremacy of the games by sending a delegation of more than 100 athletes across all nine sporting disciplines. Led by multi-Olympic winning swimmer Petria Thomas Oam, team Australia will be the odds on favourites to be top of the medals tally come 18th Oct. Such is their expected dominance in the games, that it will be a huge shock if they we're not to surpass the 150 medal mark.

Interestingly Petria Thomas, who has won 3 Olympic Golds and 8 Commonwealth Golds is also a recipient of the prestigious Don Bradman award for outstanding sportsmanship. Her on ground team will include 37 other members including coaches,
fitness trainers, medical staff and ofcourse the operations staff.

The Australian team includes a 30-member track and field unit comprising young rising stars like pole vaulter Blake Lucas, distance runner Linden Hall and sprinters Lauren O'Sullivan, Eloise Graf, & Ray Williams.Â Â Lucas, already a national under-20 champion also qualified for the World Junior Championships and has a personal best of 5.05m. Linden Hall is the captain of the Australian Schools Team and is an accomplished middle (1500m) and long (3000m) distance runner. Lauren & Eloise are likely to go head-to-head for the 100 and 200m events and then team up later for the relays and Ray Williams, an aspiring lawyer will be one of the favourites for the male sprint events.

A 16-member swim team would also be rank favourites to sweep the pool events and includes six finalists from the 2008 Telstra Australian Championships and Olympic Team Selection Trials. Jessica Ash and Amy Smith will be just two of the bright stars to watch out for in games and are likely to compete in the 100 & 200 meter butterfly events.

Some other athletes to watch out for include paddler Wade Townsend, shuttler Leanne Choo &Â Under-15 tennis star Molly Polak.